I got this coffee mug a couple years ago, as you may have guessed, in Ketchikan, Alaska. Our submarine went there for some trials and we were lucky enough to take shifts and get off the boat for a few hours. This is a good-sized mug, similar to city mugs Starbucks. The cup reminds me of the town – a little rustic, but really cool. Ketchikan is a beautiful town that I’d love to visit again someday.

• Household
  1. Sprinkle coffee grounds around the edge of your house to repel ants.
• Plants. Add coffee grounds to your plants. This works in two ways:
  1. Fertilizer. Mix the coffee grounds directly in with the soil or soak them overnight in water. I used about 1/8 of a cup of grounds with 32 ounces of water – I let them sit in a plastic coffee container – then watered the plants. I have seen mixed claims as to whether coffee grounds are acidic or not. I will be looking into this further and I will post the results in the future. I have used this on coffee, banana, and evergreen plants with success.
  2. Insect repellent. Use the coffee grounds like the previous idea for fertilizer to also help keep bugs off your plants. My banana plant had tiny bugs and looked like it was going to die. I mixed some coffee grounds into the soil and used coffee water last week; I no longer see any bugs and the plant and already has 3 new sprouts.
• Smells. Coffee is a good odor absorber, and if you’re like me, it’s a good air freshener as well – although that’s more of the unused coffee grounds.
  1. Wash your hands with coffee grounds after you are done cooking with smelly foods like garlic or onions.
  2. Place 1-2 cups of dry coffee grounds in the refrigerator in an open container, such as a bowl or spread over a plate.

This is part of 4-color dinner dish set I got about 10 years ago when I was heading off to college. The swirl around the side adds an interesting touch. I’ll post the remaining 3 mugs on other weeks.

Meranda gave me this for Valentine’s Day, 2010.

The owner of Ear X-Tacy has recently come out saying that the store is in trouble of surviving the economic downturn. I like supporting local business, especially when they are in need. Buy your music and entertainment stuff here instead of the big chains. Help show your suport:

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Coffee Mug of the Week #1

"You know you’ve had too much coffee when…
…You prefer to grind coffee beans in your mouth."

Meranda sent me this as a gift while I was stationed in Hawai’i. I have significantly cut back on coffee since being out of the Navy, but at the time, I think this cup may have just applied to me.

• On Pearl Harbor Day (December 7), I got a call with a job offer; I accepted and started the next day
• After I got a job, I got a new apartment, and have been trying to move stuff over there after work
• A vacation to Las Vegas
• Christmas
• New Years
• Not having Internet access in my new apartment doesn’t help, either.

Right now I’m at Heine Bros. I am supposed to have my Internet hooked up tomorrow, but in order for them to call before they come, the time frame they gave me was 8:30AM-6:00PM. That was nice of them, huh?

I should begin posting again towards the end of this week. I really do like having Internet; it’s just not the same using it on my phone. That’s all for now. Have a nice week!

Read the full Miami Herald article, “Man with knife in chest calls 911, orders coffee.” Posted 12/23/09.

Read the full BBC News article, “‘Bumper year’ for botanical finds.” Posted 00:06 GMT 12/22/09.

The article goes on to talk about the “Seven wild coffee species also feature on the list of new species, most of which were discovered in the mountains of northern Madagascar.” I wonder if they taste any good. The BBC has a picture showing Coffea ambongensis and Coffea boinensis, “whose ‘beans’ are more than twice the size of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica).”